The latest New York Times bestseller list has Ted Cruz's A Time for Truth at number 8. Just above him is former President Jimmy Carter's A Full Life, coming in at 7. The strange thing, however, is that Cruz sold almost 60 percent more copies of his book last week than Carter. According to Bookscan, which tracks the number of books sold, Cruz sold 8,814 last week. Carter sold only 5,147. The New York Times list does not indicate either author's books were purchased in bulk orders. Cruz was left off the list the first week his book came out...

Homophobic Everyone knew that the Supremes’ obscene gay marriage decree would lead to churches being sued for not betraying their faith with sacrilegious parodies of wedding ceremonies. But this enterprising homofascist decided to cut to the chase and go right after the Bible: A homosexual man has filed a $70 million lawsuit against Bible publishers Zondervan and Thomas Nelson, alleging that their version of the Bible that refers to homosexuality as a sin violates his constitutional rights and has caused him emotional distress. According to the Christian Post, ex-con turned author Bradley LaShawn Fowler filed the federal suit in the...

"....The controversy over the Hugo Awards contains elements of a good dystopian science fiction story. Unfortunately, the media brat-fit over the successful effort to rescue escapist fantasy literature from its political pursuers comes not from the pages of Brave New World but from Slate,Salon, and Entertainment Weekly.Like sports, video games, and cake baking, science fiction strangely finds itself in the crosshairs of ideological killjoys. Perhaps it was only a matter of time and space before the genre obsessed with time and space became a culture-war battlefield.“To many of the people involved in this industry, politics and message trump entertainment or...

Oxford University Press Bans Use Of Pig, Sausage Or Pork-Related Words To Avoid Offending Muslims 14 Jan 2015 The Oxford University Press has warned its writers not to mention pigs, sausages or pork-related words in children's books, in an apparent bid to avoid offending Jews and Muslims. The existence of the publisher's guidelines emerged after a radio discussion on free speech in the wake of the Paris attacks. Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, presenter Jim Naughtie said: "I've got a letter here that was sent out by OUP to an author doing something for young people. "Among the things...

Michel Houellebecq, who first stirred controversy with sex novel Atomised, makes waves with book describing country after Islamist becomes president. Put France’s literary enfant terrible together with Europe’s most combustible political talking point, and sparks were always going to fly. Michel Houellebecq, whose tale of sex, mother-hatred and cloning Atomised was the French literary scandal of the Nineties, is turning his attention to “Islamisation”. His new novel Soumission (Submission), will not be published until January 7 but has already triggered a flurry of accusations that he is pandering to the growing Islamophobia gripping France. It is set in 2022 and...

By the time John Kennedy Toole won the Pulitzer Prize for his great American novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, he had been dead for 12 years. Toole reportedly killed himself in part due to years of frustration over unsuccessful attempts to get his outrageously funny book about New Orleans published. It was only after his mother browbeat author Walker Percy into taking up the cause that Louisiana State University Press published the book in 1980. The following year, it won the Pulitzer for fiction. It went from being considered a cult classic to a must-read: More than 1.5 million copies...

Book Publishing Needs Socialism to Save It Let me just state up front that I love America and wouldn’t live anywhere else but, I also believe there’s room for a blend of socialism and capitalism to exist in a democratic society, and when it comes to how books are sold or treated, I prefer what the French and other advanced nations do. They protect books and the printed word. I applaud them—and so should you. Here in the U.S., thanks largely to Amazon, books have become commoditized. You can buy clothes based on price—or a desk or the hotel you...

Martin Luther’s emphasis on literacy helped make modern day journalism possible. Rise of the Corruption Story Unnatural Acts In America, we expect journalists to have some independence from government and other leading power centers. We are not surprised to glance at the morning newspaper or television news show and see exposure of wrongdoing. We assume that the press has a responsibility to print bad news as well as good. And yet, that which seems ordinary to us is unusual in the history of the world, and even in much of the world today. How did the unnatural act of independent...

If left-leaning publications value diversity, why don't they have any?On the staff of The American Prospect, I’m the only member of an ethnic minority. That's not because I bring all the variety the magazine needs, or because the editors don't think diversity is valuable. Everyone on the masthead of this liberal publication is committed to being inclusive—not just of racial and ethnic minorities but of women; gays, lesbians, and transgender people; and the poor. Nearly 40 percent of the country is non-white and/or Hispanic, but the number of minorities at the outlets included in this article's tally—most of them self-identified...

Author Gary L. Harper of Louisiana says his father was the Zodiac killer.Who was the infamous Zodiac killer? The father of a man who is publishing a book out Tuesday, according to one account. Gary L. Stewart, who runs a cleaning company in Louisiana, is claiming in his new book that his father was the elusive and "still-at-large" Northern California serial killer, according to reports. In "The Most Dangerous Animal of All," Stewart lays out how he found out, following 12 years of research, that his father was the legendary murderer, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The Zodiac killed...

NBC Bay Area's Stephanie Chuang shows why some are alarmed after a picture of the San Francisco International Airport was included in a publication run by Al Qaeda. A stock photo of San Francisco International Airport featured in an international publication – reportedly run by al Qaeda - is sounding off alarms on Capitol Hill, especially as the year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings nears. At a Homeland Security hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, said he was first alerted by a top law enforcement official in the Bay area to the picture of what appears to be...

British writer Robert Miller's expose´of religion's founder L. Rob Hubbard finds US publisherA British book the Church of Scientology managed to block in America is finally on sale in the US 27 years after it was published elsewhere in the world. The book, Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard, written by Russell Miller, a British journalist, and originally published in 1987, appeared in print and tablet editions in the US earlier this month. The book exposes many of the boasts of Mr Hubbard, the late founder of Scientology, about his early life and achievements as outright lies....

Ophelia DeVore-Mitchell, a former model, agent, charm-school director and newspaper publisher who almost single-handedly opened the modeling profession to African-Americans, and in so doing expanded public understanding of what American beauty looks like, died on Feb. 28 in Manhattan. She was 91.

I’ve always tried to be brutally honest with y’all when it come to money in this space because: 1 – It helps you trust the content I create here 2 – Being transparent is more comfortable for me than being vague 3 – Too many people in this space have wild misconceptions about how much money is or is not being made here, which leads to gossip and bitterness that’s a complete waste of time Since I first mentioned last year that I was writing a book and then more so when it was published, people have been curious about...

Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic political testament "Mein Kampf" is surging up electronic book bestseller lists, even as sales of the printed version have been stagnant for years. As of Wednesday, two electronic versions of "Mein Kampf" ranked 12th and 15th in the Politics & Current events section of the iTunes book store. On Amazon, Hitler's polemic ranked number one in the Propaganda & Political psychology section. There are currently six e-book versions of "Mein Kampf."One explanation offered for the surge in electronic sales concerns the relative anonymity offered by e-books as compared to their printed counterparts. "These are things that people...

Since losing the 2008 presidential election and almost completing a full term as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has remained on the edge of the national consciousness. She's like America's racist aunt; not evil, just painfully ignorant and around the holidays she usually opens her mouth and says something embarrassing. Her newest book Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas is like her others: a delightful read if you're able to disconnect the hate part of your brain and just focus on the imaginary world she creates. It's an amusing, Seussian world, featuring combinations of real and...

Trayvon Martin's parents are working on a book about the killing of their son and the trial and acquittal in Florida of George Zimmerman, publishers say. Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin met with publishers to discuss the book, the New York Times reported Friday. Publishing executives said the couple talked about the role of race in the killing and religion in their lives. Trayvon was 17 and walking to a relative's house when he encountered Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, in a gated community in Sanford, Fla. The teenager was unarmed but Zimmerman's attorneys argued he jumped Zimmerman, who fired...

Dates are slowly being released for the next leg of Gov. Sarah Palin’s “Good Tidings and Great Joy” book tour. At time of writing we have: December 4th: Liberty University December 6th: Billy Graham Library December 7th: Books-A-Million, Monroe, LA (see article below) From Sarah Palin’s Facebook page: Honored to be participating in the final Convocation of 2013 this Wednesday at Liberty University. Look forward to discussing “Good Tidings and Great Joy” and how together we can protect the heart of Christmas. More information here: https://www.liberty.edu/online/liberty-news/?mid=107216 P.S. This is a photo of the Heath antler pile that I wrote about...

At a recent book tour stop for her best-selling book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin drew a blue-collar crowd consisting of all races in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. As can be seen in the video below, many who came to see Palin said they identified with her because she has a son in the military. Others said they loved her "values" and how she "stands by them." An active duty soldier said that Palin "speaks the truth" and is "straight-forward." "And I like that so much," the active duty soldier said....

<p>Former Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin met with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh Monday, according to a post on Palin's Facebook page.</p>
<p>"Mega dittos from the EIB network headquarters in Florida!" the former Alaska Gov. wrote of her visit to Limbaugh's radio network. "Got to meet one of my heroes today, Rush Limbaugh. As I've said many times, I was a ditto-head before ditto-head was cool!"</p>

When former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin went to Wausau, Wisconsin on Thursday, the whole city sold out of her new book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas. Palin held a book signing at the local Walmart, where a line snaked around the gigantic store (see video below) for the sold out book. Breitbart News has confirmed the town's Sam's Club and Barnes & Noble also sold out all their copies of her new book as well yesterday. At Walmart, Palin greeted a multitude of well-wishers and signed book after book. Just like her Bethlehem, PA stop,...

At a Sarah Palin book signing on Thursday in Wausau, Wisconsin, reporters who arrived early were put into a back room at the store and prevented from leaving. According to a manager at the store who spoke with The Atlantic Wire, the confinement was at the request of the people organizing Palin's event. On Tuesday, we attended the initial event on Palin's tour, organized around her war-on-Christmas-themed book, Good Tidings and Great Joy. We were able to walk freely among those waiting to talk to the governor, asking whatever questions we wanted. The scene in Wausau, according to reporters on...

Nancy Pelosi toasts Debbie Wasserman Schultz Top Democrats turned out tonight to celebrate Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on the publication of her new book, For the Next Generation: A Wake-Up Call to Solving Our Nation's Problems. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi gave a toast of "gratitude for her great leadership, her imagination, her integrity, her idealism" as a crowd looked on from the Capitol Hill home of Sen. Mary Landrieu. Earlier Jim Messina praised the Floridian for her work on behalf of President Obama's re-election and as chairwoman of the DNC. Among the lawmakers in attendance: Reps. Steny Hoyer, Ted...

Harper Lee, the aging author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” has reached a settlement in principle on a lawsuit alleging she was scammed into signing over the copyright to her classic novel by an unscrupulous literary agent who took advantage of her failing hearing and eyesight, a lawyer in the case says. Lee had filed suit in May against Samuel Pinkus and others — including disgraced journalist Gerald Posner — to reclaim the copyright. However, dismissal papers were filed in Manhattan federal court today by Lee’s lawyer removing both Posner and Lee Ann Winick, Pinkus’ wife and another defendant, of...

I don’t believe you; You had the whole damned thing all wrong. He’s not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays. — Jethro Tull Sometimess you just have to laugh at the absurdity. I’d mentioned in a recent column a Squawker’s “prayer” that Ariel Castro (who kidnapped and held three Ohio women captive for more than a decade) would be stabbed in prison. I wondered, in print, what kind of person would seek divine intervention to carry out a revenge fantasy on his behalf. And that was that. Until this arrived: “Who the (expletive deleted) do you think...

Waiting to Exhale author Terry McMillan alternately uses Twitter to bash the GOP and share warm and fuzzy life tips with her followers. Today's social media message falls squarely in the former camp. McMillan, an Obama apologist of the highest order, lashed out at former Gov. Sarah Palin, promising violence should the two women ever end up in the same place at the same time. (TWEET-AT-LINK)

It's been called a "cure for rejection-letter fatigue." Amazon on Thursday released new details about the success of its program for authors who want to self-publish on its Kindle e-reader devices. The company, which unveiled a suite of new e-readers and tablets at a press conference in Southern California on Thursday, says 27 of the top 100 Kindle books were created using a system called Kindle Direct Publishing. That system allows authors to bypass traditional publishers and instead deal directly with Amazon, which claims to be able to publish their books digitally "in hours." The authors receive 70% of the...

Rejection -- even repeated rejection -- doesn't have to mean defeat. That, it turns out, is the lasting lesson of the Chuck Ross story. You may recognize the name; two Sundays ago, I wrote about J.K. Rowling, the spectacularly successful author of the Harry Potter books, and about how she has published a detective novel under the name Robert Galbraith. In the column, I recalled what a young and frustrated writer -- Chuck Ross -- did in the 1970s. To briefly recap: Ross had written a mystery novel that had been turned down everywhere he sent it. So, as an...

Earlier today, IAC/InterActive reached a deal to sell Newsweek, which has been publishing since January as a digital-only version of the old magazine, to the owners of the International Business Times. The announcement ends weeks of speculation about who might purchase what remains of the 80-year-old journalism brand, which was on the block for the second time in just three years. Newsweek, the once-venerated weekly newsmagazine that at its height in the early '90s rivaled Time for readers and exercised tremendous influence on Washington politics, fell on hard times under the ownership of The Washington Post Company, and was sold...

But wasnÂ’t George Zimmerman a Â“white Hispanic?Â” Author Terry McMillan says white men shoot black boys Â“to show who has the power.Â” Via Twitchy: Terry McMillan âś” @MsTerryMcMillan I think a lot of white men are afraid of and intimidated by black boys and black men. Shooting them is one way to show who has the power. 11:27 PM - 26 Jul 2013 103 Retweets 48 favorites It would be nice if at least one of these race hustlers would have their facts straight. Heather MacDonald reported: If a black parent wants to radically reduce his sonÂ’s chance of getting...

Juror B37 in the George Zimmerman trial has signed (along with her attorney husband) with literary agent and Martin Literary Management president Sharlene Martin. Along with the other jurors, Juror B37 found Zimmerman not guilty in the controversial trial. Literary agent Martin had this statement: My hope is that people will read Juror B37’s book, written with her attorney husband, and understand the commitment it takes to serve and be sequestered on a jury in a highly publicized murder trial and how important, despite one’s personal viewpoints, it is to follow the letter of the law. It could open a...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The fate of Paula Deen's magazine, Cooking with Paula Deen, is still up in the air after a controversy over the Food Network host's use of racial epithets led to the end of her television contract. "We are not in a position to discuss her magazine and contract right now," said Phyllis Hoffman DePiano, the president of Birmingham-based Hoffman Media, which produces the magazine. "A statement will be forthcoming later." "We at Hoffman Media do not condone discrimination of any kind," DePiano said.

Washington D.C., May 7, 2013 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- An Illinois-based Bible publisher has secured temporary relief from the federal contraception mandate after the Obama administration asked an appellate court to dismiss its challenge to a preliminary injunction. Matthew Bowman, senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, which is defending the publisher, told CNA that the move indicates “that the government knows it is taking an extremist view against religious freedom, and it is afraid to defend that in court.” As a result of the court order, the Bible publisher will remain protected by a temporary injunction, and will therefore...

PORTLAND, Maine — Stephen King and his wife have made a donation to a Maine group advocating for stricter gun control laws. King says the gift was "five figures" but doesn't want to say more about it because "charity's supposed to be a private thing." The Coalition for a Safer Maine says King is a gun owner and a defender of the Second Amendment who supports expanded background checks on gun sales and a ban on the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines.....

NEW YORK — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has a new book coming, this time about Christmas. The former Republican vice presidential candidate has a deal with HarperCollins for "A Happy Holiday IS a Merry Christmas," scheduled for November. HarperCollins announced Monday the book will criticize the "over-commercialism" and "homogenization" of Christmas and call for a renewed emphasis on the religious importance....

<p>In a bid to slash $465 million of debt, Reader’s Digest parent RDA Holding Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy over the weekend for the second time in less than four years.</p>
<p>The media company said it has reached a deal with its largest creditor, Wells Fargo (WFC), and more than 70% of its secured noteholders on a financial restructuring plan that includes the Chapter 11 filing.</p>

Searching Google Books for Poor Richard's has become somewhat of an exercise in frustration for me. Typically, what you will find are compilations. Authors who have looked at Franklins' works and decided what should be considered "greatest hits" quotations. Consider me uninterested. So I finally got my hands on a copy from the library which contained the original constructs of Poor Richards' as Franklin wrote them, that way I would know what to search for. Below, you will see where to find all of them online, in their original context. 1733, 1734, 1735, 1736, 1737 ,1738, 17391740 ,1741, 1742, 1743,...

LEWISTON, Maine — Geiger Brothers, the producer of the Farmers’ Almanac as well as pocket diaries and calendars, is divesting itself of its printing and manufacturing business after 135 years. The company’s decision, one influenced by changes in peoples’ behavior wrought by technology, will lead to 75 people losing their jobs, Peter Geiger, the company’s executive vice president and editor of the Farmers’ Almanac, told the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday evening. Geiger said the company, which was founded in 1878 and moved to Lewiston in 1955, told its employees of the decision on Tuesday. The company, which is also...

McGraw-Hill Education announced today it will layoff 63 employees from its Polaris offices as part of a move to reorganize and upgrade the digital quality of the kindergarten to high school products it offers. The Polaris offices are the headquarters of McGraw-Hill’s School Education division, which is part of the larger education operations. The cutbacks will reduce the number of employees at Polaris to about 510. Nationally, there will be 138 layoffs in the school education division...

Jerry Finkelstein, who made a fortune in business, real estate and newspapers, including The New York Law Journal and The Hill, and for many years was a self-styled Democratic power broker in New York City, died on Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 96.

At Writer’s Bloc, I often talk about the marketing of books, because it seems so many authors still don’t understand the importance of it. That’s why, this week, I am going to touch on a couple points made by Michael Hyatt in his new book, “Platform.” To be fair, I’ve also reviewed it, but in this space, its contents are relevant. I wouldn’t agree with Hyatt about everything, of course, but frankly, his publishing knowledge is a resource that writers should use until there’s nothing left to wring-out. “Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World,” is a true insider’s account...

Campus bookstores hate the idea, and even some college students are skeptical of the new effort by a former California lawmaker to help them save money on textbooks for hundreds of classes on nearly every campus from Alabama to the Yukon Territory. It's a free price-check that lets students compare textbook prices and rentals, and buy from the source they like best. The new online tool comes from former state Sen. Dean Florez, president of the 20 Million Minds Foundation in Sacramento, which lobbies for low-cost textbooks and is behind legislation, SB1052, to create a low-cost digital textbook library in...

In June, 1776, with Richard Henry Lee’s proposal for independence from Great Britain awaiting a vote in the Continental Congress, a committee of five – Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert R. Livingston, Roger Sherman, and Thomas Jefferson – selected one from among their number to be the key author of a formal Declaration of Independence. While the entire Continental Congress contributed to it, through their helpful editing, the principal author has long been known to be Thomas Jefferson, and he was rightly so proud of it that he wanted his authorship of this document to be on his tombstone rather...

I have started a new full service small press publishing company call The Stainless Banner Publishing Company. This press is dedicated to the preservation of Southern heritage and history. If you know a writer or have a non-fiction, biography, memoir, novel, or alternate history and are looking for a publisher, I hope you will consider submitting your manuscript to my small press. Let me tell you what The Stainless Banner Publishing Company can offer you: Professional editing Dynamic Covers Hard cover or paperback Competitively priced books High royalties paid monthly Your book on Amazon, Barnes & Nobel and many other...

Sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick's heirs battle Hollywood over the rights to the 2011 Matt Damon film "The Adjustment Bureau."Plot outline for a Philip K. Dick story: Hollywood buys film rights to obscure short story by famous author. Makes movie. Movie makes money. Producers then claim they never needed to buy rights in the first place. Demand their money back. Emblematic Philip K. Dick story elements: Attempt to turn back time and murkiness of reality. Extra mind-bending plot twist: Author of original story is named Philip K. Dick. As Laura Dick Coelho, one of the late author's daughters, told me:...

Penguin's security issue was not specified, although it likely refers to piracy concerns. But analyst Avi Greengart said he wondered how much of Penguin's objections have to do with security and how much with the business model of lending titles, especially new titles, through libraries. The growing availability of e-book titles for borrowing through public libraries has hit a bump. On Tuesday, Penguin Group USA announced it would no longer allow digital editions in any e-format of new titles to become available for library lending -- and it is disabling availability of all titles for lending in Amazon's Kindle format....

Sarah Palin used to pronounce Mitt Romney's name "M-I-L-T." In one of the many embarrassing anecdotes about the former Alaska governor, former aide Frank Bailey writes in a leaked manuscript that Palin actually argued with some of her staffers about how to correctly pronounce Romney's name. During her own 2006 campaign for governor, when Romney was chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Bailey writes that Palin didn't seem to know much about the then-Massachusetts governor. “During the campaign for governor, when Romney was in the background of our Republican Governors’ mess, Sarah didn’t even have a clear idea who he...

VATICAN CITY â€” The Vatican Publishing House is gearing up to distribute another blockbuster tome â€” this one the exclusive work of Pope Benedict XVI.Salesian Father Giuseppe Costa, director of the publishing house, told the Vatican newspaper yesterday, Â“This morning I sent the text to various editors; the aim is to present it in March.Â”Salesian Father Giuseppe Costa (CNS/Carol Glatz) The book is Â“Jesus of Nazareth. Part Two. Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection.Â” And the texts sent out are Vatican-controlled translations into a variety of languages.The popeÂ’s book could come out just four months after...

Writers are bypassing the traditional route to bookstore shelves and self-publishing their works online. By selling directly to readers, authors get a larger slice of the sale price. Joe Konrath can't wait for his books to go out of print. When that happens, the 40-year-old crime novelist plans to reclaim the copyrights from his publisher, Hyperion Books, and self-publish them on Amazon.com, Apple Inc.'s iBooks and other online outlets. That way he'll be able to collect 70% of the sale price, compared with the 6% to 18% he receives from Hyperion. As for future novels, Konrath plans to self-publish all...